Publications

Portrait Project

Yong-yi Zhu

city? To me, technology is the answer. I want to improve our communications infrastructure. I want to find more efficient ways to travel. I want to make today's innovations tomorrow's reality. By doing that, I will build more meaningful... View Details

Profile

Sebastian Vargas

Why did you choose this path at this point? Before coming to HBS, I worked for five years as an R&D engineer at Procter and Gamble (P&G). I loved my time at P&G because I worked in teams that looked at new-to-the-world View Details

02 Feb 2017
News

A Vision for the Earth

science: human medicine, materials science, combustion science. There are a lot of different fields that will eventually help folks here on Earth. “But another thing that I found during my mission that was the most impactful was help to... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Personalized Game Design for Improved User Retention and Monetization in Freemium Games

By: Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer and Julian Runge

One of the most crucial aspects and significant levers that gaming companies possess in designing digital games is setting the level of difficulty, which essentially regulates the user’s ability to progress within the game. This aspect is particularly significant in... View Details

Keywords: Freemium; Retention/churn; Field Experiment; Field Experiments; Gaming; Gaming Industry; Mobile App; Mobile App Industry; Monetization; Monetization Strategy; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Customers; Retention; Product Design; Strategy

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April 2017
Case

The Future of Patent Examination at the USPTO

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Sarah Mehta

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the federal government agency responsible for evaluating and granting patents and trademarks. In 2015, the USPTO employed approximately 8,000 patent examiners who granted nearly 300,000 patents to inventors. As of April... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Telework; Collaborating With Unions; Human Resources; Recruitment; Retention; Intellectual Property; Copyright; Patents; Trademarks; Knowledge Sharing; Technology Adoption; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Productivity; Performance Improvement; District of Columbia

April 2014
Article

The Cost of High-Powered Incentives: Employee Gaming in Enterprise Software Sales

By: Ian Larkin

This paper investigates the pricing distortions that arise from the use of a common non-linear incentive scheme at a leading enterprise software vendor. The empirical results demonstrate that salespeople are adept at gaming the timing of deal closure to take advantage... View Details

Keywords: Incentives; Motivation; Compensation; Gaming; Sales Force Management; Motivation and Incentives; Salesforce Management; Software; Compensation and Benefits; Information Technology Industry

15 Nov 2018
News

Don’t Be Afraid of AI

One is a very scientific mission and the other is a commercial mission. On the scientific side, our objective is literally to reverse engineer the human neocortex. Figure out how the brain works. That is the core of who we are and why... View Details

Keywords: Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Professional Services

19 Apr 2016
First Look

April 19, 2016

Guiding Principles into Action: Human Rights at Barrick Gold (A) In 2010, Human Rights Watch, a well-regarded international NGO, approached Barrick Gold asserting that members of the company’s security force... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Design: At, Into, & Beyond - Race, Gender & Equity

natural human and human-informed technological bias. Embedded Ethics A distributed pedagogy initiative at the Harvard John A. Paulson School Of Engineering And Applied Sciences that embeds philosophers... View Details

February 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Sarah Powers at Automated Precision Products

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Michael Norris, Julia Kelley and Kristina Tobio

In 2017, Sarah Powers, VP of Sales at an automation hardware firm, is trying to understand why some members of her sales team have been underperforming. She is tasked with analyzing her firm’s email and calendar data to try to find relationships between communications... View Details

Keywords: People Analytics; Sales Attainment; Communication Networks; Data; Human Resources; Business Processes; Sales; Communication; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Industrial Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

01 Dec 2004
News

Getting Personal

interactions between humans and technology. Are computers the perfect tool for customized marketing? The tailoring of messages via computer technology to a person’s interests based on past purchases or... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

March 1999
Case

MySoftware Company (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Nicole Tempest

In 1997, Gregory Slayton took the position as CEO of MySoftware, which had been experiencing revenue and operating losses for the past two years. Within 90 days, he stabilized the company through a combination of cost cutting, financial discipline, and accountability... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Cost Management; Profit; Employees; Growth and Development Strategy; Operations; Outcome or Result; Partners and Partnerships; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry

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Courses by Faculty - Course Catalog

Negotiation & Humanity Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Fall 2025 Q1Q2 3.0 Robert Markey Managing Service Operations Technology & Operations Management Fall 2025 Q1Q2 3.0 Jim Matheson Tough Tech Ventures... View Details

October 2000 (Revised October 2000)
Case

3PLex.com

By: Myra M. Hart and Judith Marie Dror

A start-up team is faced with the challenge of building a senior management team with relevant industry experience. The marriage of e-commerce and the transportation logistics industry creates unusual problems in blending "old economy" employees and employee practices... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Executive Compensation; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Organizational Culture; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Technology Adoption; Transportation Industry